Honorary canons of the Cathedral Chapter of Vilnius Doicese in the nineteenth century: features of development and personal composition

In the cathedral chapter of Vilnius diocese, the service of the honorary canon was initiated in the nineteenth century by Bishop Vaclovas Žilinskis (Wacław Żyliński, 1848–1856). The example of the diocese of Vilnius also applied in other Catholic diocesan chapters of the Russian Empire. It was prompted by the 1842 decision of the imperial authorities to reduce the number of full members of the cathedral chapter, canons and prelates, in performing their duties as defined in canon law. The candidates for these duties had to satisfy requirements laid down for a priest dedicated to the Catholic Church and assiduous in the duties of his minstry. The pastor of the diocese was free to choose the candidate and to decide when to appont him. This privilege was not questioned until the mid-1860s. There were no regulations regarding the number of candidates appointed at one time. The analysis conducted in the course of research suggests that the practice of appointing several clergymen as honorary canons at a time was frequent in the diocese of Vilnius. Between 1849 and 1895, 75 honorary canons joined Vilnius cathedral chapter. Honorary canons did not form a separate structural subdivision within the cathedral chapter, nor did they have the status of the member of the cathedral chapter. They did not receive a salary. However, the duties of the honorary canon provided the opportunity of forging an ecclesiastical career. Some of the nineteenth-century honorary canons of the cathedral chapter of Vilnius diocese lter became full members of the cathedral chapter of high-standing church hierarchs, for example, Bishop Aleksandras Beresnevičius (Aleksander Bereśniewicz) or Archbishop Simonas Kozlovskis (Szymon Kozłowski). The right of the bishop to make independent decisions concerning the candidates of honorary canons created premises for avoiding the dictate of the imperila authorities in forming the corps of the members of the cathedral chapter. It is debatable, though, whether such a procedure justified itself in the case of Vilnius cathedral chapter. The investigation shows that the local imperial authorities engaged three clergymen appointed as honorary canons – Antanas Nemekša (Antoni Nemeksza), Eduadas Tupalskis (edward Tupalski), and Petras Žilinskis (Piotr Żyliński) - to pursue imperial policy during the uprising of 1863. The aspirations of the Russina imperial authorities to control the very process of appionting honorary canons started gaining impetus in the mid-1860s. The ministry of the honorary canons was not questioned, but attempts were made to restrict the bishop's right to appoint them. Available sources strongly suggests that the procedure of the appointment of honorary canons and that of the appointment of full members of the cathedral chapter were brought to uniformity in the first decade of the twentieth century. The right of the bishop to appoint honorary canons of cathedral chapters was delegated to the highest imperial powers. The Russian emperor, an Orthodox beleiver himself, would decide on the personal composition of Catholic cathedral chapters, including honorary canons. It should be noted that the bishops and adminsitartors of Vilnius retained their right to appoint clergymen as honorary canons until the mid-1890s. Bishop Antanas Audzevičius (Antoni Audziewicz, 1889–1895) was the last pastor of Vilnius diocese under whose instruction new honorary canons joined the cathedral chapter. In the current stage of research, it is impossible to provide an answer to the question whether the tradition of appointing honorary canons to Vilnius diocese cathedral chapter was disrupted by the decision of the Russian imperila authorities to take over the procedure of their appointment